World Wise is a think tank that provides an expert compilation of International Development, Sustainability and Foreign Affairs stories that address some of Today's most pressing global issues.

The global economy has been through one of the most turbulent times in recent history with a financial meltdown in key advanced economies, followed by a sharp decline in global trade, extremely lax monetary policies and stalling productivity growth. Globalization and technology have disrupted entire industries, and this trend is set to accelerate with the pace of technological advancement.

Over half of the world’s least developed and lowest income countries are currently exploring for oil and gas or hoping to expand existing production. Yet tightening climate policies and shifting energy investment trends suggest that the time frame for profitable oil and gas production will be limited. This fundamentally changes the prospects for developing countries that hope to use fossil fuels as a ‘leading sector’ for growth over the next decade.

While there is no single cure, there are several ways to reduce the many factors giving rise to fragility. A series of policy processes, principles and protocols – many of them now championed by fragile states themselves – lay out strategies to promote stability and resilience.

In November 2019, the people of Quito will start travelling on the city’s first metro line, three years after construction started. The line will be expected to support at least 300,000 trips daily, improving mobility conditions for its more than two million inhabitants.

With the FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia in full-swing, billions of people around the world are cheering on their national teams. At the same time, European leaders met to respond to mounting pressure to come up with a solution to Europe’s migration crisis. One irony that may have escaped those politicians, and football fans too, is that many of the players pulling on the jersey of their national team were born outside the country they play for with such passion.

This year it is 70 years since the United Nations Security Council established the first UN peacekeeping operation. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently released new data on deployments and fatalities as well as on global and regional trends in multilateral peace operations. Here are seven lessons.

In the future, young farmers are likely to don digital glasses or consult other devices that will help them analyze their work and make decisions. Their data might be collected by self-piloted multicopters, which review the state of the field according to empirical formulas and provide specific, effective cultivation tips for individual plants, for both organic and conventional farming.

Africa is often depicted in the media as a continent of mass exodus. Images of desperate Africans on overcrowded boats bound for Europe, or those of stranded migrants in transit countries such as Libya, are plastered across our television and computer screens. The often sensational and one-dimensional reporting on African international migrants has played a role in invoking fears of the so-called ‘flood’ of migrants to Europe’s shores.

Much has already been achieved in our fight against climate change, both in mitigation and adaptation. However, the impact of climate change is gaining momentum much faster than expected, while the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy is slow. The International Energy Agency projects that fossil fuels will dominate way beyond 2040.

An unprecedented migration of women, particularly millennial women, has taken place from home to work across the Muslim world in the last 15 years. Millions have joined the workforce for the first time, in a movement where economics trumps culture.

To read the science and technology news today is to see a world of rapid progress and infinite potential. And from one perspective it is. But a fundamental limitation of the ability of technology to make the world a better place remains till this day. All of these advances in one way or another rely on the internet - a tool which remains foreign to over half of the world’s population.

Do the oceans matter to you, if you live in the urban citadels of post-industrial societies? They better do, given that every second breath you take comes from the ocean’s oxygen, produced by phytoplankton and other marine plant life.